Manos Unidas and World and Eye Arts Center, Inc.
Manos Unidas is a multicultural, cooperative based organization that strives to unearth the common strengths of our under heard community through shared bilingual resources, empowerment, living arts, popular education, and cooperative economy initiatives. Working alongside Low Income, Latino, Immigrant, Youth, and Differently-abled community citizens, we are creating a culture of "beloved community" (MLK, Jr.) while crossing borders of race, class, culture, language, ability and creed hand in hand.
Manos Unidas Multicultural Educational Cooperative formed in 1997 under the leadership of Anaelisa Jacobson along with a group of sister cooperatives. All cooperatives work toward grass roots community building in this low income neighborhood in Pittsfield. Manos Unidas' immigrant members come from Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala, Peru, El Salvador, Brazil, Honduras and Mexico having faced economic and political hardships in countries of origin. Manos Unidas works with people at the brink of economic survival and has organized projects such as "Mujeres Moviendo Montañas", a female led storytelling project; "Corazonidos" uplifting youth through creativity and community skill sharing; "Hope Seed Collective" a multicultural leadership incubator for 15 years; "Harvest for Hope Multicultural Art Making Festival" led by membership and solidarity partners for 8 years. More recently Manos has been developing the Cosmic Co-Art led primarily by BIPOC community leaders.
Manos Unidas Multicultural Educational Cooperative formed in 1997 under the leadership of Anaelisa Jacobson along with a group of sister cooperatives. All cooperatives work toward grass roots community building in this low income neighborhood in Pittsfield. Manos Unidas' immigrant members come from Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala, Peru, El Salvador, Brazil, Honduras and Mexico having faced economic and political hardships in countries of origin. Manos Unidas works with people at the brink of economic survival and has organized projects such as "Mujeres Moviendo Montañas", a female led storytelling project; "Corazonidos" uplifting youth through creativity and community skill sharing; "Hope Seed Collective" a multicultural leadership incubator for 15 years; "Harvest for Hope Multicultural Art Making Festival" led by membership and solidarity partners for 8 years. More recently Manos has been developing the Cosmic Co-Art led primarily by BIPOC community leaders.
Manos Unidas recently completed "Raíces de Cuentos/ Roots of Stories", which spanned 2024-2025 collecting oral histories from the Latino immigrant community that makes up their members and surrounding neighborhoods. The project was funded through a Mass Humanities grant and completed on Dec. 6. 14, and 20, 2025 at the Sanctum Gallery. Multi-generational Interviews with immigrants from Central and South America along with translations and artworks from the Latino immigrant community were exhibited giving voice to a silenced population living in America's shadows. The exhibit included talks by experts from the ACLU, Katunemo Arts collective, La Befana's Table, and Housatonic Oral History Center. Interviews were submitted to the Boston Digital Archive to document Latino immigrant voices from Pittsfield, MA. in 2025.
World and Eye Arts Center, Inc. - the fiscal sponsor for Roots of Story, Roots of Peace and the Butterfly Peace Procession. World and Eye has been collaborating with Manos Unidas for the past four years. World and Eye has run workshops and organized projects with Manos Unidas for "Mujeres Moviendo Montañas"; the "Cosmic Butterfly Procession"; and "Raīces de Cuentos". Jean Minuchin, World and Eye's director is excited to lend her creative and organizational skills and World and Eye's fiscal sponsorship ongoing project.
For more information, to become involved or to donate to our programming please email jean@worldandeye.com.
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World and Eye Arts Center, Inc. - the fiscal sponsor for Roots of Story, Roots of Peace and the Butterfly Peace Procession. World and Eye has been collaborating with Manos Unidas for the past four years. World and Eye has run workshops and organized projects with Manos Unidas for "Mujeres Moviendo Montañas"; the "Cosmic Butterfly Procession"; and "Raīces de Cuentos". Jean Minuchin, World and Eye's director is excited to lend her creative and organizational skills and World and Eye's fiscal sponsorship ongoing project.
For more information, to become involved or to donate to our programming please email jean@worldandeye.com.
